Printers, copiers and facsimile machines use modular print components. For example, many laser printers now use a replaceable print cartridge that houses the toner reservoir, the photoconductive drum assembly, and the charge and developer roller assemblies. When the toner is gone, the entire cartridge is replaced. Modular cartridges may also be used for other components of the printing device that are consumed or otherwise replaced over the useful life of the device. It is often cost effective and more environmentally friendly to recycle a used cartridge rather than discard it and replace it with a completely new cartridge. Hence, used cartridges are sometimes refurbished or their components incorporated into re-manufactured cartridges or recycled into new cartridges.
Print cartridges are usually sealed in a plastic bag and placed in a cardboard box for storage and shipping. Counterfeiters have been able to re-use or duplicate this type of packaging to sell used or re-manufactured cartridges as new cartridges. Counterfeit cartridges are low quality. The sale of counterfeit cartridges cheats consumers out of a quality product, reduces sales for legitimate manufacturers and damages the goodwill these manufacturers have gained for their high quality products.
Print cartridges for laser printers, also commonly called toner cartridges, typically include a toner reservoir, the photoconductor and the charging and toner delivery assemblies. A removable protective barrier called a toner dam is inserted between the toner reservoir portion of the cartridge and the other print components. The toner dam keeps the toner powder separated from the photoconductor and the charging and toner delivery assemblies during shipping and handling. The toner dam is removed by the user just before the cartridge is installed into the printer. Because conventional toner dams have no mechanism for indicating the cartridge is new, counterfeiters can reinsert or reform the toner dam and resell a used cartridge as new. Pull tabs molded to the cartridge so that the pull tab must be broken free of the cartridge to pull out the toner dam have also helped deter counterfeiting. However, because the toner dams and pull tabs have no identifying features, there is still an opportunity for reinserting or reforming a toner dam as part of a counterfeit cartridge.